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View Poll Results: The MobileRead Literary Book Club July 2011 Vote | |||
Bleak House by Charles Dickens |
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14 | 34.15% |
The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu |
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6 | 14.63% |
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote Of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes |
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4 | 9.76% |
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie |
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5 | 12.20% |
Paradise Lost by John Milton |
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12 | 29.27% |
Voters: 41. You may not vote on this poll |
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#1 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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Help us choose the July 2011 selection to read for the MobileRead Literary Book Club! The poll will be open for three days.
We will start the discussion thread for the selected work on July 17th and a thread for August's nominations will be created five days later on July 22nd. I will start the threads, but the discussion thread may have a "discussion leader" if one volunteers. Everyone can post whatever thoughts they wish on the month's selection, but the discussion leader's goal will be to continue the dialogue in a thought-provoking direction with discussion questions and the like. In the event of a tie, there will be a one-day run-off poll. In the event that the run-off poll also ends in a tie, the tie will be resolved in favour of the selection that received all five of its initial nominations first. Select from the following works: Bleak House by Charles Dickens Spoiler:
The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu Spoiler:
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote Of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Spoiler:
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie Spoiler:
Paradise Lost by John Milton Spoiler:
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#2 |
Professor of Law
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Ideally, as a student of Japanese literature, I'd have voted Tale of Genji. But as I've been working through my two-volume set of Genji for most of the year, I could not, in good conscience vote for it to be read in one month.
Great choices this month though! |
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#3 |
intelligent posterior
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Guess which got my vote (see avatar)
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#4 |
Nameless Being
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I have to go with the book I nominated, The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, even though I know it may be difficult for many to achieve the ~70 page per day average to complete by the start of the discussion.
There was really a great selection this month, including a few that just did not make it into the top five. Bleak House is actually one of the two (Oliver Twist being the other) books by Dickens that I have never read. I will say that I am not cheering for Don Quixote. That is no reflection on the book, it is just bad timing for me personally. I reread that a few years ago. So I am not too keen on reading it again so soon, yet it was long enough ago that I would not want to try and just wing it for the discussion. |
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#5 |
Wizard
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pity the Magic Mountain did not make, I must have read it 30 years ago, will have to be my beach-bumming read, then!
I voted for Don Qixote, which I am ashamed to say I've never read, so would be nice to have the inducement. Not too excited by Bleak House, which I haven't read either, but I am not too fond of Dickens. But at least I'll plug this hole, too, as it looks like it's running ahead fast! |
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#6 | |
o saeclum infacetum
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Quote:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...4&postcount=80 Pssst, I don't like Dickens much, either. |
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#7 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I do hope for Paradise Lost to win. I studied something about it in high school. I read a bit about it in different occasions. I would like to study it now, getting a general idea of the main themes, so to start with one of them, and through it to learn about some of Milton's poetic. obviously with guidance of some the many essays that I can find around. The other books that have been nominated do not have really any interest for me. In Paradise lost, on the contrary I see that some of the themes are actual and close to my interest. The fact is that even to day Milton is studied and discussed, creatively. There is a quarterly journal on Milton, that maybe my uni is subscribing. That would be a great help. But there is a lot on the net. Milton is considered a giant, of the calibre of Dante and Shakespeare. this would be a great occasion to know it better, especially with the help of the members for which English is the first language.
I will vote at the last possible moment, as by voting I lose the possibility of seeing who is voting what. |
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#8 |
Wizard
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Of course I voted for Paradise Lost which was one of my nominations. I doubt that it will win but if anyone wants a good start on this magnificent and splendid epic to help in private reading I would recommend A Preface To Paradise Lost by C.S.Lewis first published 1942 and frequently thereafter. It's available in Oxford Paperbacks. A good annotated edition of the poem is John Milton: Paradise Lost edited by Alastair Fowler and published by Longman {pb} 1971. Fowler gives very extensive notes on the poem to the point of creating a Variorum edition.
There are plenty of eBook versions {free and paid} available too. I keep a collected edition on my Kindle. Perhaps Milton isn't to everyone's taste, but I find his work has an almost supernatural beauty and tremendous psychological drama. I hope you will all forgive me if I give just a sample of his writing. Here's the famous lament of the blind Samson from Milton's tragedy Samson Agonistes It's worth remembering that Milton himself was blind. O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies! O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age! Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, 70 And all her various objects of delight Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased. Inferior to the vilest now become Of man or worm, the vilest here excel me: They creep, yet see; I, dark in light, exposed 75 To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong, Within doors, or without, still as a fool, In power of others, never in my own— Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half. O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, 80 Irrecoverábly dark, total eclipse Without all hope of day! Last edited by fantasyfan; 06-28-2011 at 12:50 PM. |
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#9 | |
Wizard
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Quote:
![]() maybe Paradise Lost has a chance... @fantasyfan, thanks for the references! |
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#10 |
intelligent posterior
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Dang, I should have held off. Based on the current standings, I want to rescind my vote for Cervantes and give it to Milton
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#11 |
o saeclum infacetum
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Gooooo, Paradise Lost!
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#12 |
Wizard
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Voted for Paradise Lost. Not sure if I'll manage it if it wins, but I'd like to make an acquaintance with it.
Me neither. I'd rather give one of the other ones a fight than try Dickens (again) |
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#13 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I do not trust Dickens enough to enjoy anything he wrote. I read the tale of two cities. It started so well, misterious, compact, emotional. Then nothing, disaster after disaster till the grotesque propaganda like finale. Never again, I leave it to my British friends.
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#14 |
Addict
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I would be happy to read Bleak House or Paradise Lost. I voted for Bleak House simply because I hadn't read it yet and I read PL last year.
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#15 |
Resident Curmudgeon
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I voted Bleak House in hopes it helps defeat Paradise Lost. We do have an illustrated edition of Bleak House on MR I'll be giving a go to if it wins.
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Tags |
book club, literary, literature, voting |
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